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Category: Personal Development

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Best Practices Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Use Disinformation to Negotiate Better

“Disinformation is meant to alter your perception of the truth. To combat it, dissolve it before it dissolves you.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

You set the stage for any negotiation with information. That’s called positioning. The way you present that information, and it’s content, shape the persona the other negotiator has of your negotiation power, resources, and abilities. #Disinformation plays a vital role in shaping that persona – using it strategically can help you negotiate better.

Disinformation is used in planning wars, corporate espionage, and in the planning stages of negotiations. Think for a moment about the term #FakeNews. What comes to mind? That phrase has become a form of disinformation.

The following is how you can use disinformation to improve your negotiation efforts.

Creating a Disinformation Campaign:

To create disinformation campaigns, start by disseminating information in small cycles first – you want the target to become familiar with it. That’ll make him more susceptible to believing it and the information that follows. Over time, expand it, its believability to the truth, and its cycles. To have the greatest effect on the target, have information disseminated in places that they frequent (e.g. social media post, news outlets, radio, etc.). Doing so will impact their belief as to the validity of the information (i.e. I see/hear it everywhere – so it must be true).

Psychology of Disinformation:

For disinformation to be viable, tie it loosely to the beliefs of your target. People become swayed more easily if they have a preconceived belief about something they accept as already being truthful. So, if you associate your disinformation with their currently held beliefs, they’ll accept your information more readily. The trick is to make your information just within the outer realms of their beliefs. That’s the setup to having them stretch their beliefs as you later present insights further outside of it. Your efforts should become geared to having them expand their beliefs to the point of easily accepting the new insights you present as the truth.

Combating Disinformation:

As you know or may have discovered, disinformation is a powerful mental tool. Thus, while employing it, you must be mindful about its deployment against you.

To improve your plight when disinformation is used against you, ask yourself the following questions.

  1. Consider the originating source of the information. Ask yourself, what belief is this information attempting to form in my mind or in the mind of my supporters?
  2. How was the information delivered? Did it arrive through a source that has proven to be believable in the past? Is that source being manipulated?
  3. What new paradigms is this information attempting to create and who benefits from it?
  4. To what degree are others attempting to alter my perception for the benefit of who they’re serving?
  5. What happens if I ignore the information?

Posing such questions to yourself and your confidants will help you evaluate the information and its potential validity. I’m not suggesting you become paranoid. What I’m suggesting is you not readily accept information at face value as the truth. There are too many ways to get disinformation into today’s environment. Guard the door that keeps it away from you.

Disinformation is used in all realms of negotiation. And, there is a multitude of ways that it’s used. Therefore, the better you become at utilizing it, and knowing how to thwart its use against you, the better you’ll become as a negotiator … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Disinformation #FakeNews #Negotiate #Process #Power #Powerful #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

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Best Practices Growth Skills

Use Quotations to Enliven Your Writing

Sprinkling quotations into your writing is a very effective way to improve it. Doing this serves a number of functions.

  1. Quotations summarize a point you’re making in your work.
  2. They also emphasize this point.
  3. A quotation by someone both famous and respected gives confirmation to your ideas.
  4. They serve to break up large blocks of text.

Choosing Quotations

I’ve found that the most effective way to find quotes is to search for a topic. For example, if I want a quote from a successful woman entrepreneur, I use that term and put “quotations” in front of it. A number of sites come up, and I scroll through them.

I need to know what I’m looking for before I start reading them. I pick out several that come the closest to my goal for a suitable quote and compare them.

Several factors influence my decision.

How long is the quote? A one-sentence quote is ideal, two sentences if it really makes the point. If it’s any longer, it begins to diverge into something that looks more like text.

Is it accurate?  Random House copyeditor Benjamin Dreyer points out in the hilarious Dreyer’s English the need to verify quotes are accurate. He cites three sources for verifying or debunking quotes:

  • Wikiquote.com
  • Books.google.com
  • quoteinvestigator.com

Who said it? I tend not to use quotations by “Anonymous.” They may sound great, but they lack the additional clout of name familiarity.

I usually don’t use quotes by anyone I’ve never heard of. They have the same lack-of-clout problem. However, bearing in mind that I’m not swimming in the mainstream of popular culture, if the quote really has an impact, I may look the person up. If he or she is well-known, I’ll use it.

Sometimes the person’s name isn’t well-known, but her company is. For example, Debbi Fields is the founder of the Mrs. Fields company. If I saw a powerful quote by her, I would use it and name her company.

If I’ve heard of the author of the quote but think others may not have, I will, as in the case of Debbi Fields, add, “author,” “playwright,” or some other identification.

A different problem can arise if someone who is always quoted made the quote. Yes, Oprah, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk do have a lot to say, but I’d be cautious about quoting them. People might say, “Oh, another Oprah quote” and skip past it.

My rule of thumb here is: The more I see one name in my scanning of quotations, the less likely I am to use it.

I would also avoid using quotations by people who may have a polarizing effect, i.e., those who are on extreme ends of the political/social spectrum. This would depend on what I was writing.

Build a Quotations Collection

The other way you can work with quotations is to collect them so that you have many handy to put into your articles and books. File them in categories so that you can find them easily.

Sometimes you’ll get an unexpected bonus. A quotation may spark in you an idea for an article. You can deliberately activate this effect by going through your collection when you’ve run out of fresh ideas.

I close with this quotation:

A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority.—Brendan Behan, Irish playwright

Pat Iyer is an editor and ghostwriter who helps authors shine. Contact her for a free consultation at patiyer.com.

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Best Practices Management Marketing Personal Development Sales

Five Reasons Your Salespeople Aren’t Good In the C-Suite

If your well-trained salespeople are having trouble getting into the C-suite, you aren’t alone.  It’s pretty common. There are a couple main reasons, some of which are easier to correct than others.

I’ve been in the sales training game for almost a decade, and have engaged with a a lot of sales forces in a lot of industries. Through my past experience as an executive, bolstered by my work selling to them, I’ve observed a couple of major problems.

Problem 1: The “Salesperson Doesn’t Add Value” Loop

This is a problem wider than just C-suite selling.  The sales profession has hurt themselves.  CSO Insights published a research note which describes what they call the apathy loop(contact me if you’d like a copy). The basic idea is this:

  • When sellers act unremarkably, customers no longer consult them (currently B2B buyers prefer company salespeople 9thout of 10 information resources…ouch!).
  • Sellers self-inform using one or more of the 8 better information sources and self-diagnose their solution.
  • They then distribute a requirements document and ask sellers for proposals/bids/etc.
  • The request traps most sales teams into a response every bit as standardized and unremarkable as the customer expected in the first place.

Sellers need to add value–go beyond customer expectation– to break out of the apathy loop. Challenger salespeople shake up a customer’s thought process by challenging (hence the name) assumptions and thought processes – generally by “telling”.  Insight sellers might ask questions or tell stories.  Perspective sellers build credibility, then offer business insights. These insights might take the form of:

  1. Enlarging – or shifting– the customer’s conception of their situation and/or problem.
  2. Altering – ideally expanding — outcomes that a client envisions and desires.
  3. Helping a group improve the quality or efficiency of decision-making. This kind of perspective is useful, but doesn’t move an executive’s needle – today’s topic.

A lot of training programs “yada yada” business acumen:  they tell sales people to “just use yours” to provide perspective. Has everyone in one of your selling roles really mastered the business acumen to provide insights?

It’s pretty hard to provide insights into something you don’t understand.

Some of the highest end sales forces in the world buy their sales people MBAs.  You can build a lot of business acumen for a lot less…why are you choosing none at all?

Problem 2: Executives Only Want to Talk About Executive-Level Topics

Top executives organize their companies.  That is, they define and arrange organizational silos, then direct how work flows between them. If an operation or process lives inside a silo, execs don’t generally want to hear about it. Instead, executives summarily refer functional-level subjects down into the silo (and place the offender on their “time-waster list”).

The work of getting executive time is often the work of making your topic relevant to them.  While sellers should show the same respect for every persona’s time, the stakes are higher for executive meetings.

Only approach an executive on a topic/issue they will value.

If you don’t have anything, wait until you do.  If your people can’t tell the difference, they need more business acumen.

Of course, your training and enablement included techniques and practice for talking to executives (it did, right?).   Now, did you feed them executive-worthy issues…or the business acumen to find topics for themselves?  Or, did you simply tell your sales people to “get out of your comfort zone.”?  How did you coach actual conversations? Did you get out of your comfort zone in training and enabling them?

Problem 3:  Customers often buy in silos.

Another reality: your customer reinforces the apathy loop via their own org chart. Organizational silos shape buying processes by simply existing. Companies tend to self-examine their needs through a silo filter. Requirements, RFIs, RFPs, etc. often signal how narrowly your customer is thinking through their own problem.  The easy – almost automatic — reaction is to follow the customer’s self-limiting thought process.

Remember the customer who called your salesperson in after internally developing their own requirements? Have you explicitly trained your reps to ask:

  • Who had input into the proposal?
  • What other functions and silos were consulted? How heavily was/will their input be weighted?
  • What functions/silos weren’t consulted…and why not?

If you haven’t trained reps to ask these questions, do you think they formulate and ask these questions on their own?

If your solution positively impacts more than one customer silo, you need to make sure you uncover every possible ally.  Remember, cross-silo benefits are often a valid reason to engage with an executive.

Problem 4:  Perhaps your selling activity is siloed too.

Maybe you’re unconsciously reinforcing the apathy loop yourself.

Your sales methodology is just as effective across silos as within, but I haven’t seen a single trainer encourage thinking outside of the box…well…silo. Ask yourself: what explicit skills, analytics, or tools did I give my people to carry their methodology across silos to hunt for value gaps?  If you didn’t train and coach them to apply methodology outside of the comfort zone, you’ve reinforced a discomfort zone…and strengthened the apathy loop.

Business acumen provides a foundation.  Sales people rely on their business acumen to talk comfortably about bigger business issues across organizations.

Articulating different ways your product or solution could impact functions and roles across a target company requires a different kind of product training.  I know of some great tools to help sellers understand the networks of value their product/service can have at a customer.

Problem 5:  You’re Rewarding Mediocrity

You may have also erected another barrier to your own success:  your compensation plan.  Do you have a compensation plan and discounting review processthat incentivizes sellers to get outside of the apathy loop and discover value? Or, do comp plan and discounting process reward commoditization equally? Humans– buyers and sellers — take the easiest route to an end.  If sellers can, they will make discounted sales by sticking inside of the apathy loop: meeting expectations, acting unremarkably and not differentiating themselves or their offer. Ability to manipulate your discounting/price exception system is all that’s required.

Sales People Want to Be Great.  Let’s Help Them

I am happy to talk about how to help close all of these gaps.  Contact me if you’d like to discuss further.  As always, like and share with your networks if you think they might find value.

To your success!

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Best Practices Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Make Your Words Colorful to Inspire People

 

“To inspire people, touch their emotions. To touch their emotions, use colorful words that paint pictures in their mind’s eye.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

To inspire people, you must touch their emotions. To touch their emotions, use colorful words that paint pictures in the mind of those you seek to inspire.

Since words communicate feelings, they move people to action. To become better at inspiring people and moving them to action, take note of the following insights.

Colorful Words:

Some words are more vibrant than others. And the way you form them makes you appear more powerful. As an example, if I said, ‘we can achieve our goal’. Depending on the modulation of my voice, some people will become inspired and moved to action. But, if I said, ‘if we stand strong, united as a single force, we can overcome anything – we can achieve our goal!”, with the same modulation as the first example, more people will become inspired.

Here’s another example. “Through a forceful fight, devoid of fright, we can forge our way to victory!” Out of the three examples, you’re probably moved more by this one. I’m sure you can sense the sensational difference too. The last two examples where more moving, more inspiring, more colorful. They had more rhythm, too.

Rhythm:

The rhythm in which you deliver your words also impacts their perception. You may have observed the rhythm in the second example. The words stand, strong, united as a single force. They set the tone and rhythm for, ‘we can overcome anything – we can achieve our goal!’ Where rhythm is concerned, the more your words end on a beat, the better they sound to someone’s ears. Then there’s alliteration.

Alliteration:

Alliterations can also be impactful and lead one to become inspired. They can move a listener to action due to the rhythm and pictures they create. Forceful, fight, and fright, were the words used to alliterate and paint a picture in the third example. Those words were the backbone upon which life was given to, “Through a forceful fight, devoid of fright, we can forge our way to victory.” I’m sure that example conjured up more imagery in your mind’s eye. I bet it was more inspiring, too.

When it comes to inspiring people, the more colorful words you use, along with rhythm and alliteration, the greater the image you’ll paint upon the perception of their mind. That will also be the source by which you’re able to inspire them.

By taking note of what’s mentioned above and employing it during your efforts to inspire others, you’ll increase your degree of influence, be perceived as more of a leader, and become more admired. You will have reached a higher summit in your life … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

In a negotiation, words are the means through which you communicate your position. To be more impactful, you need to be aware of how to use those words to move the other negotiator to your perspective. By utilizing the examples mentioned, you’ll be well on your way to accomplishing that mission. Thus, if you want to win more of your negotiations, don’t take those insights lightly. If you do, you do so at your peril.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#words #inspire #InspirePeople #Best #Thoughts #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

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Best Practices Growth Leadership Personal Development

5 Strategies for More Effective Meetings

As we approach the new fiscal year, you can bet there are a lot of meetings in your near future. But the question remains, “Are those meetings necessary and effective?” If the answer is “no,” you’re about to spend a lot of effort, money, and time taking people away from their work so they can socialize and entertain one another—on your dime!

Think we’re exaggerating? Add up every attendee’s hourly rate. Multiple that by the length of each meeting. Next, add in prep costs, and you get a very costly proposition. Yes, some meetings are necessary. They can be useful to ensure everyone’s on the same page. And many meetings are unavoidable, especially when stakeholder buy-ins are involved.

We’ve held and attended thousands of meetings over the years. We paid for most of them, so we were sincerely interested in keeping these meetings effective, short, and action-oriented. Watching meetings digress and degenerate taught us many different lessons. We learned meeting best practices firsthand from colleagues and our own hard knocks.

Here’s our simple list that’ll help you how to get the most out of the shortest and fewest meetings possible.

Agenda

If you’re running the meeting, make sure to create an agenda in advance. Make sure each talking point has a time limit. Be wary of attendees who try to discuss items that aren’t on your agenda. Kindly recommend a separate conversation about their issue and then get back on topic. Don’t forget that the point of your meeting is discussion, education, and making decisions. Keep the conversations on track.

Purpose

Make sure you establish ground rules right from the start of your meeting. Identify the meeting’s goals, what you expect to accomplish, the decisions you expect to make, which member(s) will head the meeting, and last but not least, how long the meeting will be. Your purpose needs to be communicated in all related correspondence, and it should be in the final statement of the actual meeting itself.

Calendar

The most effective meetings are action-focused. This action must be completed by a certain date. Make sure everyone at the meeting can see the same calendar, so all lead times and deadlines are visible. The best attendees take notes right on their own calendars because they know they’ll need to block out some time to make an appointment with themselves and assess their responsibility. Calendars are an excellent way to get meeting members to focus on your agenda—you can also ask them to commit to a date to talk about their off-agenda topics.

Scribe

Choose someone to take notes and keep track of time. Instruct them to interrupt the meeting to remind everyone how much time is left and how they’re doing so far. For example, in a one-hour meeting, we think it’s smart to let everyone know when there are 15 minutes left. This helps teammates think about decisions, deadlines, and action plans. Simply put—it’s time to wrap things up! Right after the meeting, the scribe organizes the notes, assignees, action items, and deadlines, and sends them to each attendee.

Action Items

During the final few minutes of a one-hour meeting, ask the scribe to go over the action items, their assignees, and deadlines. Once each assignee hears their corresponding action item being read aloud, they’ll be more likely to complete those items on time. Keep an eye on progress moving forward through an online platform that can be used to update status, educate others, and collect feedback and input from each attendee.

Another, simpler money and time-saving method is to simply have fewer meetings. Look for common culprits that occur throughout many of your meetings. Try to have a meeting only for the action-oriented tasks explained above. It’s too costly to have meetings out of habit. Keep your team focused on being productive. Don’t give them room to complain, “Oh no! Not another meeting!”

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Use Stop-Loss Brackets When You Negotiate

“Knowing when to stop can be a life-saver. Using a stop-loss bracket helps to identify where you are in that process.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

When you negotiate, do you use a stop-loss bracket to control your emotions and the flow of the negotiation? You should, because if exercised properly, it prevents your emotions from hijacking your decisions during the negotiation.

It’s important to have a stop-loss bracket in place because, if you’re not sure about the lowest offer you can accept, you may not maximize the negotiation’s potential. If you’re unsure of the top bracket, you run the risk of losing what you’ve gained and/or upsetting the other negotiator.

Setting Stop-Loss Brackets:

You create a stop-loss bracket in the planning stage of a negotiation. Below the bottom bracket are offerings you can’t accept. Above, is the upper bracket point that you should consider not exceeding – That’s due to the potential subjection of losing the gains you’ve acquired. If you exceed the upper bracket, you might appear as being greedy.

To set the brackets, assess your worse and best-case scenarios. Do this for the least and most you think you can obtain from the negotiation. Do the same per the thoughts you believe the other negotiator has about his brackets. You can assign a probability to each bracket to increase its potentiality (e.g. 40% chance of losing if I go above/below bracket). You’d make that appraisal based on the information you’ve gathered per the needs, reasons, and wants the other negotiator has for negotiating with you.

Once you’ve made your evaluation, test it in a mock negotiation with a counterpart that understands the needs of the party you’ll be negotiating with. That process may uncover thoughts you’d not considered. If they do, consider altering your brackets to reflect the new insights you’ve gained. You may flirt with adjusting your percentage probabilities, too.

Controlling Negotiation Flow:

As you engage in the give-and-take of the negotiation, test the other negotiator’s bottom bracket by making a ridiculously low offer – this will also help set his expectations for what he can achieve. Be careful not to insult him. To avoid that, prior to making the offer, you might consider saying, “Please understand that I’m under tight guidelines per what I can offer in this situation.” Having stated that, you’ve prepared him for what’s to come. Once you make the offer, observe his reaction.

If he accepts your low offer, consider lowering what you thought his lower bracket would be. If he immediately rejects your offer without giving it real consideration, you may have to test him again or think about slightly upgrading his lower bracket. Throughout the process, he’ll be assessing your brackets, too. So, consider how you’ll respond to his offers. The exchanges that both of you have with one another will control the negotiation flow.

Conclusion:

Stop-loss brackets are excellent to control yourself and a negotiation. Since you know what you can accept before you sit at the table, you don’t have to involve your emotions.

To make the process work better, know when you’re near your lower and upper brackets and those of the other negotiator. Once you reach your upper bracket, test it by asking for something slightly above what you’ve acquired – do it gently. As an example, you might say, “I really appreciate the effort that you’ve put into nearing the agreement that we’re about to make. I’d like to ask you for ‘x’ if you can do it.” If he grants it without making a counter-request, you’ve just received something in addition to what you had. If he requests something in return, you know you’ve reached your stopping point. Either way, you’ll be in a better position … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Persuasion #StopLoss #Bracket #Negotiate #Process #Power #Powerful #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

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Accounting Best Practices Entrepreneurship Industries Investing Leadership Personal Development Sales Technology

Embracing the Power of Blockchain Technology

During the digital transformation, we have witnessed traditional forms of physical media fall out of favor as users abandoned their treasure trove of CDs, DVDs, books, magazines, and even photo albums to partake in an entirely clutter-free life. Digitally optimizing our lives has enabled us to remove shelves, cabinets and dust magnets while we get our entertainment fix from the likes of Netflix, Spotify and the endless list of streaming alternatives.

We often forget just how much technology has changed our lives in the last few years. Therefore, it should be no surprise that our love of cold hard cash could be the next twentieth-century casualty to fall by the wayside.

Over in Europe, Denmark and its Scandinavian neighbors Norway and Sweden are leading a charge toward a cashless society that will see the end of tooth fairy payments for children but will equally wave goodbye to a world of money laundering, fraud, and tax evasion. The bonus of replacing scrambling around for loose change for a purchase, or riding public transportation with contactless payment by swiping a card or smartphone, is incredibly appealing for most users.

The concept of handing over a handful of silver coins in exchange for any product or service can feel quite primitive in our modern world dominated by technology. However, contactless and smartphone payments are not the end-all, be-all payment options, as there is another game changer in the form of cyber currency. But does this technology disruptor have the power to transform our traditional banking system?

Blockchain is the digital ledger software code that powers Bitcoin. As this system has grown in popularity, the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, Blythe Masters, has her sights set on changing the way banks trade loans and bonds in a way that could dramatically change the way we look at both business and banking. Blythe delivered a massive wake-up call to finance leaders when she compared the influx of changes to the arrival of the internet when she advised, “You should be taking this technology as seriously as you should have been taking the development of the internet in the 1990s. It’s analogous to email for money.” The speed in which technology trends can go viral illustrates how an internet of finance could become a reality sooner rather than later.

The interesting aspect of Bitcoin is the ability to buy and sell without the need for an intermediary. This represents a paradigm shift in the management and structure of the financial services industry. However, adopting innovation and changing entire ecosystems is not something that the notoriously cautious financial industry and affiliated regulation committees are famed for.

Because this technology has the potential to reduce the role banks play in the lives of individuals, it is understandable why financial institutions are skeptical. However, these developments cannot be written off just yet. They could save consumers and the financial industry billions of dollars while also removing their reliance on middlemen to offer a speedier, modern and more efficient banking experience.

The ultimate goal is to move payments globally much faster while simultaneously becoming more transparent and lowering costs. We will likely begin to witness early adopters making waves in the private market before the ever-cautious big players speak of standardization and implementation. However, there are already a few of them dipping their toes into the water.

According to the PwC, there are already over three hundred technology startups developing ideas that will allow blockchain to revolutionize the financial industry. Big players like Visa and Nasdaq are already investing heavily into a blockchain startup, and there are also plans to modernize the London Market. Lloyds is looking to blockchain technology to improve its data access and reduce costs associated with administrative paperwork.

There are daily stories of heavyweights within the financial industry becoming increasingly eager to capture the tamper-proof benefits offered by a future web-based cryptocurrency. Technology leaders such as Microsoft also have thrown their hats into the ring to demonstrate the possibilities that blockchain technology can offer.

There is exciting potential to completely revolutionize the way in which the finance industry works. But in its infancy, many will continue to exercise great caution before rushing into a shiny electronic cash system that is fully peer-to-peer. The future of cash and pockets full of loose change is indeed looking numbered, as many wonder if in just a few years we will be looking back at our quaint primitive payment methods in the same way many do with physical media now.

Cryptocurrencies that thrive in a transparent environment might seem like a foreign concept today, but the rise of blockchain technology is one Hard Trend that will quickly prove to be impossible to ignore.

Finance trends can be anticipated – when you know how to look. The Anticipatory Organization Model has the power to shift an organization’s operating mindset from the default of reacting and responding to changes coming from the outside in, to a place of empowerment by anticipating and shaping the future from the inside out.

Categories
Best Practices Culture Growth Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Women In Business

You Never See it Coming

I woke up in a reflective mood this morning as I’m preparing for BOTH Easter and Passover this year and thinking about the challenges faced by our ancestors.  For some reason I was reminded of a woman I met on a long plane ride several years after 9/11,  Anna was a portly woman, probably in her early sixties, possibly older.  We were coming back from Los Angeles, so it was going to be a long flight and I welcomed the diversion of some light conversation.  Also, being a writer, I’m always looking for opportunities to hear a good story.

After the usual introductions, I asked about her work. She replied that it had changed significantly over the past several years. Previously, she was a project manager with an office in the World Trade Center.  Now she was in a different building closer to where she lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  I couldn’t help but ask where she had been when the planes hit.

She said she was at her computer when the announcement came to drop everything and move to the stairwell.  No one told her why she had to leave her office. Confused, she joined the rush of people making their way down the forty flights of stairs.  Rumors spread.  She began to realize something terrible had happened, but exactly what wasn’t clear. Her mind started to race, even if her feet could not.  She decided that she had to get to safety.

Suddenly, the exodus came to a halt.  Although the group had arrived at the lobby level, the guards in charge were instructing people to stay in the stairwell.  This did not make sense.  She squeezed her way through the crush of bodies and out the stairwell door.  People yelled for her to get back into the shaft.  Instead, she sprinted across the lobby while the guards shouted after her.

Most of the exits to the outside were locked, but one of the doors remained open.  Without hesitation, this overweight, out-of-shape, sedentary woman began running — all the way from the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan to her apartment on the Upper West Side of the city.  She never looked back, never stopped running until she was home on 79th Street and Broadway – more than 6 ½ miles from where she’d started.  When I asked what was going through her mind, she said she couldn’t believe she had left her favorite red heels under her desk.  Not her laptop, not her phone, not any files, but her sexy, red-spiked heels.

I was impressed.  This matronly woman — without any information and acting on only gut instinct — saved her own life.  The others in her group who obediently stayed put were crushed when the Towers came down.

The Takeaway?   Just when everything appears to be going well, a plane will suddenly appear in the sky and slam head-on into either your life or career or something else you value. You won’t see it coming but be assured; it happens to us all.  Marriages end. Careers derail.  Fortunes are lost. The people you counted on suddenly disappear.

When the calamity arrives, what will be your response? Will you sit there stunned, unable to move, and scream at the moon that it’s all unfair?  Or will you refuse to be crushed and instead take action to regain your life, as Anna did?

A few years ago, when I was staying at the Westin in Philadelphia, the fire alarms went off in every room and all the hallways with instructions to head to the stairwells.  My heart raced as I remembered Anna.  Hotel guests were standing in the stairwells waiting.  I couldn’t.  I pushed my way through the throngs and sprinted down the stairs and out onto the street and safety.

I found out later it was a bomb scare.  The bomb squad found it and dismantled it.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.  But I assessed the risk as well as I could and acted on my own behalf, the way Anna did.

When life challenges confront me I remember Anna and take action rather than allowing circumstances to control my fate.  And I always make sure to have my red stilettos somewhere safe. 😉

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Best Practices Growth News and Politics Personal Development

 What Boeing Can Learn From Oncologists and Hackers

Boeing is dealing with the aftermath of two 737 MAX8 crashes in less than six months, causing over 300 deaths. All MAX8 aircraft have been grounded worldwide, the stock has taken a huge hit, and customers are now canceling upcoming orders.

How did the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial and military aircraft, with an outstanding safety record for decades, get themselves into this mess? Air travel is still the safest form of transportation. It’s just that when an airplane falls out of the sky, hundreds of people die. When it happens twice in a short time for the same reason, people panic.

One theory is that Boeing over-automated the aircraft. By taking control out of the hands of pilots to prevent stalls, they may have inadvertently created a situation that resulted in an automated system that may be causing more crashes than it prevents. Boeing also tried to simplify training—with some pilots only getting minimal training on the new aircraft via iPads. Did their efforts to get the plane to market with as little upgrade cost to airlines as possible backfire?

Perhaps the real answer is about mindset. If a new aircraft passed the prescribed tests, Boeing (and the FAA) deemed it to be airworthy…except it wasn’t.

Both oncologists and hackers will tell you betting that things are OK because you don’t immediately see a problem can often lead to disaster. There was a time when a doctor who ordered a mammogram or CT scan presumed that if no lumps or growths were seen, the patient was healthy. Now good radiologists and oncologists presume that there’s cancer lurking in every corner—until they can prove otherwise. They know that what they see is the full picture. The consequences of missing a few rogue cancer cells hiding somewhere may be the difference between life and death.

Top financial institutions take the same approach. They hire groups of hackers to break into their systems—to expose flaws no one knew were there. They know that just because no one has broken in so far that doesn’t mean the flaw isn’t there. It just means it hasn’t been discovered—yet. And finding out through a huge data breach can have severe consequences.

What Boeing should have done was hired the aviation equivalent of smart oncologists or hackers. Turn lose the most highly experienced pilots you can find and let them have at it in a simulator. Put the aircraft through its paces in the worst conditions they can imagine. Then go to younger, less experienced flight crews and see how they handle the same scenarios—do they take the correct actions, or do new issues arise?

Good user experience testing makes a critical difference. How are these systems actually being used? Are there learning issues for flight crews who are not native English speakers? Do experienced pilots expect the aircraft to behave in a way that may not reflect what actually happens? What are the unintended consequences of taking decisions like this away from the flight crew?

We can shake our heads at what Boeing didn’t do, but let’s not forget that it’s all too easy for organizations in almost any industry to make these same kinds of mistakes. We need to take these lessons to heart for our own businesses, rather than gloating at Boeing’s predicament.

Where are the potential gotchas in your systems, your products, your services, your delivery methods? Have you done a comprehensive scan from top to bottom to ensure no fatal flaws are hiding just under the surface? Are you hacking your own systems to find the weakest links?

When the first hint of a potential problem arrives, take it seriously. Don’t wait for the same issue to occur twice or more before taking appropriate action. Presuming a fatal flaw won’t occur is a strategy that just doesn’t fly.

Linda J. Popky, Founder of Leverage2Market Associates, is an award-winning Silicon Valley-based strategic marketing expert who is the author of the book Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters and the Executive Director of the Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC). Follow her on Twitter at @popky #mktgabove.

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Best Practices Investing Management Marketing Personal Development Sales

The Secret of Selling … and Business: Mind the Value Gaps

Selling — and business — isn’t about what your customer says they want as much as it’s about what they value. Sure, translating from the first to the second takes skill, but that’s the reality. Customer value is at the heart of sales, marketing, customer experience, innovation, operations…everything in your business.

Value is the energy – the unseen force behind all business. Without value received in each direction, no transaction would take place. More profoundly, it drives every part of a customer’s buying process, like reading an advertisement, clicking on a web link, or agreeing to take a sales call. Nothing happens unless a prospect considers each next step worth his/her time. That is, they perceive a value gap: the expectation of a desirable outcome.

For most of the past decade, I’ve taken a deep dive into the craft of selling. However, I’ve always viewed selling not as a siloed corporate function but as a part of a bigger whole, combining my general management, value and pricing expertise with knowledge in sales and marketing. When you treat sales as its own silo, you leave a lot of potential growth and profits on the table.

Customers Buy…to Fill Value Gaps 

Selling skills and methodology training all takes different paths to the same goal: uncovering value gaps, then showing the customer to fill them. These could be gaps the customer understands and describes…or those they don’t know to ask for. The sellers that confine themselves to customer-described value gaps are the ones that look –and sell — like everyone else…and compete on price.

Your expertise in your product or solution means nothing if you aren’t also an expert in your customer’s business. Only then can you help your customer achieve creative, differentiated outcomes.

The Way We Sell Today Leaves Value Gaps Ignored.

Companies silo themselves into functions. This is both good and bad. Silos are centers of specialized expertise, but they are also fertile ground for tribal dysfunction (according to anthropologists who study organizations). Think of all of the functions in your own company who regularly contact your customer. Now think about how many value gaps those “non-sales” roles uncover on a daily basis, but don’t do anything with. Finally, ask yourself what value-creation opportunities you are wasting.

Everyone who comes in contact with a customer should be considered a seller. Then, every seller in your company needs to be attuned to looking for value gaps. More important than closing such gaps when they can: carrying any/all value insights “back to the hive”. When your organization gathers a more holistic view of a customer – and all their value gaps – you put yourself in a better position to compete.

Customers Don’t Help.

Selling companies aren’t the only ones who silo themselves. Even more important, customers try to buy in silos. For example, a piece of hospital lab equipment might be sold to the lab silo, assisted by resources in purchasing, contracting, and perhaps facilities. However, if that piece of equipment fails – or even worse, starts giving incorrect results – think of all of the silos who are impacted. The list includes doctors, nurses, patient records, billing, legal, scheduling (for re-tests), loss prevention, finance, administration…and of course, purchasing, contracting, and the lab silo. Think about it this way: when that equipment is running properly, all those departments are still impacted and are potential areas for innovation and value creation.

Most B2B offers deliver value company-wide, but many sellers are oblivious to anything outside of the conventional selling box. Business acumen helps sellers analyze how an offer benefits to other areas of the company. When all of your sellers have business acumen, they’re equipped to sell outside of a customer’s compartmentalized buying mentality.

Even if you don’t buy into lofty goals like feeding customer-focused innovation, think narrowly and tactically. Silo-limited customers with narrow buying processes lock salespeople into poorly differentiated selling processes. The same organization scheme that focuses on expertise and drives efficiency restricts a broad exploration of solution impacts. If your offer delivers out-of-single-silo results (most do), limiting yourself to within-silo selling is an act of self-commoditization.

If You Invest in Differentiating Your Product/Service, You Gotta Pay for it

When a business generates value for a customer through a differentiated offer (product, service, or solution), a sale is made. Generate enough value and the seller can charge more than their costs. They can then reward their employees for building differentiated products, forge strong relationships with valued suppliers, invest in even more differentiation, and yes, share profits with investors.

As you can see, focusing on value gaps closes a lot of loops in an organization. Your sales silo can strengthen those loops or break them. Unfortunately, some metrics make a sales organization still look good while still delivering profit/value dysfunction. I regularly see scoring systems which focus inside-the-sales-silo only, instead of holistically.

It’s About Uncovering and Closing Value Gaps.

By “it”, I don’t just mean sales. I mean “a world-class business”. All sellers (everyone who touches a customer) should participate in uncovering gaps. Every function in your company participates in closing gaps. Don’t let how you’ve siloed your organization stands in the way. And don’t let your customer’s silos limit the value you bring.

If you want to talk about it some more, contact me. As always, share and/or like if you found this article worth your time.

To your success!